Navajo man sentenced to 18 years for federal sex abuse conviction

ALBUQUERQUE — Patrick Begay, 43, a member of the Navajo Nation who resides in Churchrock, New Mexico, was sentenced Aug. 8 in federal court in Albuquerque, New Mexico to 216 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for his conviction on an abusive sexual contact charge.

Begay will also be required to register as a sex offender.

Begay was arrested in November 2016 on a four-count indictment charging him with sexually abusing a child under the age of 12 years from November 2013 through December 2015, and engaging in sexual contact with a child under the age of 12 years on January 6, 2016. Begay committed the offenses on the Navajo Indian Reservation in McKinley County, New Mexico.

On March 17, Begay pled guilty to count 4 of the indictment charging him with abusive sexual contact with a child. In entering the guilty plea, Begay admitted that on January 6, 2016, he engaged in sexual contact with the victim, who was then nine-years old. Begay further admitted that he repeatedly sexually abused the victim from the time she was seven-years old.

This case was investigated by the Gallup office of the FBI and the Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Marshall prosecuted this case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and Department of Justice’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. More information about Project Safe Childhood is available at http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

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